|
| NEWS:
From
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ - 05/02/11:
OSAMA BIN LADEN KILLED;
‘JUSTICE HAS BEEN DONE’
By Philip Rucker,
Scott Wilson and
William Branigin,
Updated: Monday, May 2,
10:11 AM
Osama bin Laden killed in
U.S. raid, buried at sea
Osama bin Laden was buried at sea Monday
after U.S. forces raided his well-appointed hideout in
Pakistan, shot him in a firefight and spirited his body out
of the country aboard a helicopter, U.S. officials said.
The death of
the long-hunted al-Qaeda leader, who had eluded
intensive U.S. efforts to capture or kill him after the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks he ordered, triggered
warnings Monday that his radical Islamist network or
sympathizers could try to retaliate against Americans or
U.S. interests.
It also served, U.S. officials said, to
send a message to the extremist Taliban movement fighting to
make a comeback in Afghanistan, where it had harbored bin Laden
and al-Qaeda before being driven from power by U.S.-backed
Afghan forces in November 2001. The message: give up hope of
defeating U.S. and NATO forces, renounce al-Qaeda and join the
political process.
Bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces early
Monday in Pakistan (Sunday afternoon in Washington) in what
officials described as a surgical raid on his compound in
Abbottabad, Pakistan, a garrison town 72 miles by road north of
the capital, Islamabad.
In a rare Sunday night address from the
East Room of the White House, President Obama said a small team
of U.S. personnel attacked the compound, where bin Laden had
been hiding since at least last summer. During a firefight, the
U.S. team killed bin Laden, 54, and took custody of his body in
what Obama called “the most significant achievement to date in
our nation’s effort to defeat al-Qaeda.”
The discovery that bin Laden had been
hiding in a well-populated part of Pakistan, rather than a
remote location,
raised new questions about the extent to which Pakistan is
cooperating with the United States in combating terrorism.
U.S. forces flew to bin Laden’s hideout in
helicopters about 1 a.m. Monday (4 p.m. Sunday in Washington) —
reportedly from neighboring Afghanistan. Bin Laden was killed
“in a firefight” after he and his guards resisted the U.S.
attackers, a senior Obama administration official said. U.S.
personnel identified him by facial recognition. Bin Laden was
shot in the head, the Associated Press reported.
A U.S. official said bin Laden’s body was
quickly transported away from Pakistan and “buried at sea,” in
part because the U.S. government did not want an accessible
gravesite that could become a shrine to bin Laden’s followers.
The official declined to identify which body of water the corpse
was taken to, or provide further details on how it was
transported or handled.
The official said the body was buried “in
accordance with Islamic tradition,” meaning within 24 hours of
bin Laden’s death. No information was available as to whether
Muslim prayers were recited or the body was ritually washed, as
is usually required by Islamic law. In general, burial at sea
means tipping the body overboard — wrapped, likely, in a shroud
— after a brief service.
Obama said neither Americans nor civilians
were harmed in the raid on bin Laden’s compound. Three other
adult males were killed — two were bin Laden’s couriers and a
third was his adult son — according to a senior administration
official. One woman was killed when she was “used as a shield by
a male combatant” and two others were injured, the official
said. There were also children at the compound. |
THIS WEEK'S BIRTHDAYS:
| THIS DAY IN
THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES: |
http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/This%20Day/thisday0502.htm
- INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO:
Saturday, May
2, 1863
CHANCELLORSVILLE CONFRONTATION CONTINUES
As it had been planned yesterday, Stonewall Jackson took his
army around to the Federal right. He was observed, but the
Federals misunderstood and thought he was retreating. Late in
the afternoon Southern forces hit the ill-trained, ill-led and
utterly unprepared 11th Corps of O. O. Howard. Some units fought
valiantly; some ran at the first shot. The line collapsed. As
Jackson rode back to his lines in the dusk he was hit by a
number of shots from his own men. The arm wound, although
serious, was not thought to be life-threatening by the standards
of the day.
Monday, May 2, 1864
CONFEDERATE CONGRESS CONDUCTS CONFERENCE
Under the Confederate Constitution, the Congress was to meet for
a new session every second year. Thus it was that today the
Second Congress opened for the conduct of business. The first
item was a report from the President. Jefferson Davis reported
that it was beginning to seem unlikely that the nation would
receive official recognition by any European government, but
that military efforts were going well and should lead soon to
victory. Little has changed in political speeches from that day
to this. |
From Jay Gunter (Ferguson HS -
'66) of VA - 05/01/11 - "Screen heroes":
 From
Bill Hobbs ('66) of Northern VA - 05/01/11 - "Things I Have Learned in the
South":
- A possum is a flat animal that
sleeps in the middle of the road.
- There are 5,000 types of snakes
and 4,998 of them live in the South.
- There are 10,000 types of
spiders. All 10,000 of them live in the South, plus a couple
no ones seen before.
- If it grows, it'll stick ya. If
it crawls, it'll bite cha.
- Onced and Twiced are words.
- It is not a shopping cart, it
is a buggy!
- Jaw-P? means Did y'all go to
the bathroom?
- People actually grow and eat
okra.
- Fixinto is one word. It means
I'm fixing to do that.
- There is no such thing as
lunch. There is only dinner and then there is supper.
- Iced tea is appropriate for all
meals and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like
a little tea with our sugar.
- Backwards and forwards means I
know everything about you.
- The word jeet is actually a
phrase meaning Did you eat?
- You dont have to wear a watch,
because it doesn't matter what time it is, you work until
you're done or it's too dark to see.
- You dont PUSH buttons, you MASH
em.
- No, Jew? is a common response
to the question, Did you bring any beer?
- You measure distance in
minutes.
- You switch from heat to A/C in
the same day.
- All the festivals across the
state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect, or
animal.
- You carry jumper cables in your
car - for your OWN car.
- You only own five spices: salt,
pepper, Tonys, Tabasco and ketchup.
- The local papers cover national
and international news on one page, but require 6 pages for
local high school sports and motor sports, and gossip.
- You think that the first day of
deer season is a national holiday.
- You find 100 degrees Fahrenheit
a bit warm.
- You know what a hizzy fit is.
- Going to Wal-Mart is a favorite
pastime known as goin' Wal-Martin' or off to Wally World.
- You describe the first cool
snap (below 70 degrees) as good chicken stew weather.
- Fried catfish is the other
white meat.
- We don't need no dang Driver's
Ed. If our mama says we can drive, we can drive dag-nabbit.
- You understand these jokes and
forward them to your Southern friends and those who just
wish they were from the SOUTH.
WILD
GIGGLES! Thanks, Bill!
 |
From My Niece, Shari, of VA - 05/01/11 - "Something Worth Sharing
and A Mixed Text":
We Learn...
10% of what we read,
20% of what we hear,
30% of what we see,
50% of what we see and hear,
70% of what we discuss,
80% of what we experience,
95% of what we teach others.
- William Glasser
"True learning is not about facts, but
about conscious appreciation of the
experience of living."
- jlh
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Fact:
You are more likely to be struck by
lightning than to be eaten by a shark.
You are more likely to be infected by
flesh-eating bacteria than you are to be
struck by lightning.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Wow--took the jury all of 5 minutes.
What was wrong with the shop owner?
--------- Man cleared of 99-cent hot dog
theft ---------
CHENEY, Wash. - A Washington state man
who said he forgot to pay for a 99-cent
hot dog was cleared of theft by a jury.
John Richardson, 30, said he spent $28
at Mitchell's IGA in Cheney in December
but forgot to pay for the 99-cent hot
dog he ate while shopping, The
Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.,
reported Wednesday. Richardson and other
witnesses said he offered to pay for the
sausage when the manager confronted him
outside of the store, but the payment
was refused and police were called. A
jury took less than five minutes to
clear Richardson of the theft charge.
"From all the testimony, you'd have to
be an idiot to not realize that the guy
simply forgot," juror Patrick Reeves
said. "It took the jury about five
minutes to come to a verdict."
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Jokes
While making rounds, a
doctor points out an X-ray to a group of
medical students.
"As you can see," she says, "the patient
limps because his left fibula and tibia
are radically arched. Michael, what
would you do in a case like this?"
"Well," ponders the student, "I suppose
I'd limp too."
vvvvvvvv
"Doc, I can't stop singing, 'What's New,
Pussycat?'
"That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome."
"Is it common?"
"Well, 'It's Not Unusual.'"
vvvvvvvv
Q: What do you call a nutty dog in
Australia?
A: A dingo-ling!
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Takeable Stuff
Materialism is the idea that the more
things you have, the more you are
esteemed by others, and therefore, you
believe it enhances your own
self-esteem.
You strive to buy all the things you
can. You see someone else has purchased
a new thing that you don't have, so you
strive to buy one for yourself, even if
the cost is greater than money.
You work longer hours to make more money
to buy more things to add to your stuff
collection. You buy things that you
think will give you more pleasure,
entertainment, convenience or status.
This means you spend less time with your
loved ones and less time taking care of
yourself.
Then you die.
What happens to all your stuff? You
can't take it with you, so the ones you
left behind get to decide what to do
with your stuff. They may fight over it
causing family rifts.
Some of them might not want your stuff
at all and sell it to buy the stuff they
want. What they don't want may be given
to charity, or worse, just thrown away
in the trash.
So much for your prized possessions.
The ancient Egyptians tried to take
their stuff with them. The Pharaohs were
buried in the Pyramids with all their
stuff, including wives and slaves, with
the idea that they would need their
stuff in the next life. Thousands of
years later, archeologists would dig up
their burial tombs and display all their
stuff in museums so people could see
what kind of stuff ancient Egyptians
collected.
So much for their prized possessions.
There is one thing you can take with
you: Love. The human heart has an
unlimited capacity for loving an
unlimited amount of people. And you can
collect more people than you could ever
hope to collect stuff.
The more people you love in this life,
the more treasures you collect not only
in this life but beyond. The more people
you collect into your life, the happier
and more secure you will
feel, and
this will go a long way in enhancing
your self-esteem.
Have you ever noticed that someone who
is loved by many is held in high esteem?
So start collecting today.
Grandparents, parents, brothers,
sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces,
nephews, children, grandchildren,
friends, coworkers, strangers in need.
The list is unlimited and so is the love
in your heart.
And you can take that with you.
~A MountainWings Original by Loretta
Fuqua, Pearland, TX~
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Drink Plenty of Water
I've heard it. I've read it. As long as
I have been running, it's always been
the same message: "drink plenty of
water."
All along most racecourses are water
stations, and most runners slow down to
drink a cup of cool water. Keeping your
water level up is critical when you run.
If you get slightly dehydrated, you will
not run well.
If you get moderately dehydrated, you
will become disoriented.
If you get seriously dehydrated, you can
die.
It's serious business.
The first year I ran I was inexperienced
(also younger, slimmer, stupider, etc.)
I passed water stop after water stop,
occasionally drinking a swallow or two.
I felt good, and I wasn't going to waste
precious seconds drinking water, even
though it was a hot, humid day.
Big mistake.
As I neared the final mile, I "hit the
wall." My energy level dropped to zero,
I began having to walk some, and I
realized I would have to work hard just
to finish. I did make it across the
line, but only with a tremendous
headache and hardly enough energy to
walk. It was not much fun.
I learned an important lesson that year.
Stopping for water doesn't actually slow
you down. In fact, you will run a better
race if you do drink water. The bottom
line is that your body is simply not
designed to function without water.
In the same way, your spiritual stamina
depends on stopping for regular drinks
of "spiritual water." The dilemma for
busy people is finding time to invest in
reading the Word and spending time in
prayer. Like the runner intent on
reaching the finish line, we tend to put
off those regular drinks of water until
we are totally parched.
But in the long run, you will run a
better race if you will stop for
spiritual water. In fact, finishing the
spiritual race at all may depend on it.
Runners who don't ever slow down to take
a drink often stumble off the course far
short of the finish line.
In this year's race, I saw a man become
dehydrated just a mile from the finish.
Strangely, he didn't seem to recognize
that anything was wrong. He was swaying
from side to side as he walked, mumbling
over and over, "I'm fine. I'm fine." He
was so disoriented that he didn't even
recognize his own sick condition.
If you let yourself become spiritually
dehydrated, you may not even be able to
recognize it. Stop today to drink some
cool "Living Water." For serious
runners, it's a must.
The Author is Unknown but the "Living
Water" is known.
Thanks so
much, Shari!
|
FINALLY:
| From
www.ajokeaday.com
- 05/01/11:
One-Liner:
A skeleton once wanted to go to a party but then he realized
he had NO-BODY to go with. |
|
